Microsoft

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On Monday, eight
of the world's leading technology companies set aside their rivalries to issue
a direct challenge to U.S. lawmakers: lead the world by example and fix
America's broken surveillance state. Although the tech companies' statement
sends a powerful message, notably absent from the letter's signatories is the
appearance of a single telecommunications company, or telco.

CPJ today joined an unprecedented coalition of leading
Internet companies and civil liberty activists in the United States to press
Washington to be more open about its massive and controversial surveillance programs.

Some of the Internet companies at the heart of the outcry over U.S.
government surveillance today joined with human rights and press freedom
groups, including CPJ, in calling for greater government disclosure of electronic
communications monitoring.

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Government surveillance of electronic communications "should
be regarded as a highly intrusive act that potentially interferes with the
rights to freedom of expression and privacy and threatens the foundations of a
democratic society," Frank La Rue, U.N. special rapporteur for freedom of
expression, warned in a
report issued less than two months ago. "States should be completely
transparent about the use and scope of communications surveillance techniques
and powers." At the time, the report might have called to mind nations such as China
and Iran with high levels of state surveillance. But today, following revelations
of a broad, secret digital
surveillance program led by the U.S. National Security Agency, La Rue's words
seem instead to have been a prescient rebuke of U.S. policies.

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With more than a billion users, Facebook is not only
the biggest global social network but also an increasingly important forum for
journalists. In some repressive countries it has even served as a publishing
platform for journalists whose newspapers or news websites have been closed
down. That is why journalists and bloggers should note
today's news that after a year of standing on the threshold, Facebook has
decided to step inside the Global
Network Initiative tent.

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Chinese
dissident Wang Xiaoning was released today after serving a 10-year prison term
on charges of "incitement to subvert state power," a case built in good part on
client information supplied by Yahoo. Wang had used his Yahoo email account and
the discussion forum Yahoo Groups to spread ideas the government deemed
dangerous. His case closely parallels that of journalist Shi Tao, another Yahoo
user who fell afoul of the Chinese government. In 2005, Shi was convicted of "illegally
leaking state secrets abroad" and given a 10-year sentence. Yahoo had helped
authorities identify Shi through his account information.

The last few weeks have offered the strongest indications
yet that nation-states are using customized software to exploit security flaws
on personal computers and consumer Internet services to spy on their users. The
countries suspected include the United States, Israel, and China. Journalists
should pay attention--not only because this is a growing story, but because if
anyone is a vulnerable target, it's reporters.

Journalists and bloggers in authoritarian countries have
their work cut out thwarting governments that try to restrict their writing and
reporting. The last thing they need to worry about is the provider of their
publication platform helping authorities with censorship or surveillance. Cue
the Global Network Initiative
(GNI), a voluntary grouping of Internet companies, freedom of expression
groups, progressive investors, and academics.

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When journalists make enemies in high places, they become
vulnerable to the powers those figures wield. One such power is the state's capacity
to wiretap and obtain personal records from communications companies. From
Colombia's phone-tapping
scandal to last year's case of Gerard
Davet--a Le Monde reporter whose
phone records were obtained by the French intelligence service in apparent violation
of press freedom laws--state surveillance has a long history of being misused
against reporters.

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As Internet penetration deepens, largely religiously and
socially conservative India is struggling to cope with concerns about
controversial web content and its easy accessibility to a vast population, all
with little oversight. Local courts have become the launching point for some of
the anti-Web offensives.